With the Country Music Awards airing tonight, we decided to take a look back on the most popular country/rap collaborations in the past years.

With out a doubt, Hip-Hop/Rap has ventured off to many new sub-categories with influences from all other genres. Nelly, T-Pain, and Ludacris are a few of Hip-Hops biggest names that have crossed over and dabbled in the genre of “Country Rap.”

“Country Rap” began to form as a genre when Bubba Sparxxx and producer Shannon “Fat Shan” Houchins created Sparxxx’s 2001 debut album “Dark Days, Bright Nights” as an independent release which was later re-released on Interscope Records.

Since then there has even been “country rappers” who have surfaced such as Cowboy Troy, BIg & Rich, Colt Ford and many more rapping about country life instead of urban life. Even country traditionalists such as Toby Keith, Trace Adkins and Blake Shelton have adapted a country rap style in recent years. Below is a list of the Country/Rap songs that have become mainstream and to many “country/rap classics.”

The CMA’s will air tonight on ABC at 8pm EST.

-@RealWem

Kid Rock – Cowboy
“Country Rap” was introduced by then rapper ( now country rock singer) Kid Rock on 1998′s “Devil Without A Cause” on the albums 4th single “Cowboy” written in 1997.